Dodgers’ Kasten Makes Strides With Assist From Magic

LOS ANGELES—Spring is a time for renewal. And baseball. And in the case of the Los Angeles Dodgers: Both.

When Stan Kasten took the helm of the Dodgers last May, L.A.’s storied baseball team was a franchise in trouble: the organization had gone bankrupt; it’s former owner had earned the ire of fans and Major League Baseball; and a parking-lot brawl left a fan from a rival team in a coma.

But nearly a year later, Mr. Kasten, president and chief executive of the Dodgers, said he and the team’s new owners, Guggenheim Partners, are making progress on the mandate they set forth last spring to restore the Dodgers.

“That’s hard to do,” an animated Mr. Kasten said Wednesday in a speech in Los Angeles, though it might be “simple to articulate.”

When Guggenheim Partners—which includes Mr. Kasten, Guggenheim CEO Mark Walter, former NBA star Earvin “Magic” Johnson and film executive Peter Guber—bought the Dodgers for $2.15 billion last May, the team had recently filed for bankruptcy and Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig was running the team’s operations.

Mr. Selig was frustrated with former owner Frank McCourt, who borrowed against the team’s assets to finance an expensive lifestyle. Mr. McCourt was embroiled in costly divorce proceedings; the team was reeling from an opening-day brawl that left one San Francisco Giants fan with severe head injuries and the stadium’s outdated wiring had caused multiple fires during the 2011 season.

The team had “fallen on some hard times,” Mr. Kasten said Wednesday, addressing a luncheon at Town Hall Los Angeles, a nonprofit speaker series. The new ownership’s response, he said, is focused on scouting and player development, updates to the stadium facility and creating an “extensive” community outreach program.

Mr. Kasten, who formerly headed up the Atlanta Braves and the Washington Nationals franchises, said he encouraged the Dodgers to renew an emphasis on international signing, and the team has hired 10 new international scouts. He pointed to the team’s signing of Cuban outfielder Yasiel Puig and Korean pitcher Ryu Hyun-jin last year as positive results of those efforts.

The Dodgers were “dead last” among major league teams for international signing, he said. “Today some 40% of major leaguers were born outside the U.S. For us to have abandoned that path really set us back.”

Mr. Kasten also lauded the recently-completed Dodgers Stadium renovations, noting that the team’s clubhouse is now one of the league’s “finest”—something you’d expect from a team so close to Hollywood. The clubhouse contains what is currently the “largest weight training room in baseball,” according to Mr. Kasten.

But it was one anecdote about his partner Earvin “Magic” Johnson, which Mr. Kasten told with the lively spirit of a true cheerleader, that conveyed a real possibility for a franchise turnaround.

The legendary Los Angeles Lakers player surprised the team one day last season by leaving two autographed Lakers jerseys in each locker. “These highly-paid professional players were dancing around the locker room like little children,” Mr. Kasten recalled. He said he told the team, “that’s exactly how everyone feels when you give them your autograph.”

The next night, the players waited for fans at the park gates and signed autographs—a secret tradition they did nine times last season and which they plan to repeat again several times this year. Mr. Kasten said one player approached him after signing autographs that evening and said, “I see what you mean.”

That’s part of what the president and chief executive said he sees as significant “progress” over the past year. “If we’re good to our community, our community will be good to us.”

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